Agriculture & Land Management

Latest in Agriculture & Land Management

• Guidelines for biodiversity proofing the EU budget

  This report provides a practical framework to ensure that spending under the EU budget has no negative impacts on biodiversity, and that spending under the EU budget is overall supportive to achieving the biodiversity targets.

• Sustainable intensification of European agriculture

  The concept of sustainable intensification has come into prominence in the context of global food security. This report defines what we mean by sustainable intensification, explains its global logic, discusses what it means for EU agriculture and exemplifies this in three case studies for soil performance, nutrient recycling and biodiversity.

• On the path to a circular economy

  Read the lastest edition of our newsletter for our views on the circular economy package and much more.

• Space for energy crops – An assessment on the potential contribution of Europe’s energy future

  The overall energy potential that can be produced from growing dedicated energy crops on ‘spare’ land in the EU is low. This new report explores the potential for the additional production of energy crops in Europe on land not already used for food production, forestry, or providing other important services, and assesses some of the challenges associated with increasing output.

• High Nature Value farming throughout EU-27 and its financial support under the CAP

  This study reviews Member States’ estimates of the extent of HNV farmland and use of RDP measures and the CMEF indicators, then identifies future priorities for CAP support for HNV farming and discusses the support opportunities under the reformed CAP. It offers detailed new evidence about the combined effect of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 CAP payments on the economic and environmental viability of a typical HNV farming system in three Member States.

• New report: High Nature Value Farming in the EU

  Member States need to make the most of the opportunities under the new Common Agricultural Policy if the declines in HNV farming, critical for meeting our 2020 biodiversity targets, are to be halted.

• Press release - Biofuels don’t deliver but bioresources have promise

  Biofuels produced from conventional agricultural crops deliver only limited reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and compete for limited supplies of land.

• Environmental policy and the UK’s review of the EU Balance of Competences

  The UK Government’s Balance of Competences review has now taken evidence on 25 subject areas, including the 6 with the most relevance for the Environment. We take stock of the IEEP’s contributions, and consider what a possible UK renegotiation might mean for the environment.

• Re-examining EU biofuels policy: A 2030 perspective

  EU biofuel policy must reflect the reality that while biomass in principle can be renewed, the overall quantity sustainably available is finite and must be shared across an emerging bioeconomy.

• Waste-based biofuels sector needs smarter EU 2030 package to realize its high potential

  A robust sustainability framework and ambitious decarbonisation targets for transport fuels in 2030 are necessary to ensure efficient waste utilisation and the long-term reduction of transport emissions.

• How to design EU biofuels policy for post-2020?

  IEEP has organised two parallel workshops in Brussels and London to discuss with key EU and UK policy makers and stakeholders the future for EU biofuels policy post 2020.

• Winter 2014 Newsletter - A Question of Targets

  The latest edition of IEEP’s newsletter is now available.

• Options for sustainable food and agriculture in the EU

  How should Europe respond to the increased demands on our food and agriculture systems arising from global population growth, changing diets, and competing demands on agricultural land? This report offers a view on how the EU could play a role in meeting these challenges in the coming decades and sets out some of the options which merit particular attention.

• Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050

  IEEP presents views on how Europe should respond to the increased demands on our food and agriculture systems arising from global population growth, changing diets, and competing demands on agricultural land.

• Ministers place biofuels in a policy vacuum

  Energy Ministers today failed to agree reforms to the EU laws that promote the use of biofuels for transport. Current EU legislation is flawed and unfit for the purpose of delivering verifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions from the transport sector.

• Time to decide – What’s at stake as European energy ministers vote on biofuels?

  Europe’s Energy Ministers must seize the opportunity to set future EU biofuels policy on a more sustainable trajectory.

• Four decades of EU environmental policy

  The latest edition of IEEP's newsletter is out. Director David Baldock reflects on 40 years of EU environmental policy, plus an update on biofuels policy, costs and benefits of energy savings, developing Natural Captal accounts, and much more...

• Interactions between climate change and agriculture; and between biodiversity and agriculture in Europe

  What should be Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050? This IEEP report for the European Parliament describes options for increasing the productivity of European agriculture whilst adapting to climate change, reducing emissions, and providing biodiversity and ecosystem service benefits from agriculture.

• Recycling wastes and residues for sustainable bioenergy and biomaterials

  What should be Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050, considering competing demands for land? This IEEP report for the European Parliament describes options for reusing food wastes and agricultural and forestry residues for biomaterials and bioenergy.

• Assessing Scotland’s progress on the environmental agenda

  How much progress is Scotland making on the environmental agenda? Can Scotland fulfill its growing aspirations to become an environmental front runner in Europe? This new report explores these questions in relation to the farmed environment, Marine Protection Areas and climate mitigation.